At 1:24 am on Sunday the 18th of March, 1990, the doorbell rang at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston’s Back Bay neighbourhood. When one of the museum’s two guards went to the door, he saw what appeared to be two police officers waving at him through the glass. “Police! Let us in. We heard about a disturbance in the courtyard,” said one. The security guard let them in. Minutes later, both security guards were handcuffed to pipes in the museum basement with duct tape around their heads and the “police officers”, who were actually art thieves, were robbing the place.

The REAL police found the museum security guards handcuffed and duct taped in the basement

Even after all these years, the Gardner Museum heist makes the news just about every week. New leads, false trails, aging gangsters, and missing art: the story is irresistible. In this exercise we will explore the Gardner Museum heist through the multimedia resources provided by the FBI and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Whodunit? There is $5 million for whoever can answer that question.

Collect clues and discuss crime scenarios in the comments.

Missing Artworks

The 13 pieces stolen by the Gardner thieves include some of the most valuable paintings in the world…and what seem to be curious and random low-value knick-knacks. Some people think that the low value pieces are clues: do they reveal the thieves’ true tastes? Were they robbery souvenirs? What do you think?

The Masterpieces

1. The Concert by Vermeer

One of only a handful of known paintings by Vermeer, the painting is valued at over $200 million.

2. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt

Rembrandt’s only seascape, the painting is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

3. A Lady and a Gentleman in Black by Rembrandt

4. Chez Tortoni by Manet

The Lower-value Pieces

5. Landscape with an Obelisk by Flinck

6. Self-Portrait by Rembrandt

7. La Sortie de Pesage by Degas

8. Cortege aux Environs de Florence by Degas

9. Program for an Artistic Soirée 1 by Degas

10. Program for an Artistic Soirée 2 by Degas

11. Three Mounted Jockeys by Degas

The Bric-a-brac?

12. Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessel

13. Bronze Finial of an Eagle

Empty Frames

Isabella Stewart Gardner, whose art collection makes up the Gardner Museum, was clear in her will that she wanted her art to be arranged exactly in a certain way. In honour of this request, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has decided to leave the frames from the stolen paintings on the walls but empty.

The Gardner Museum has teamed up with the Google Art Project to create a virtual tour of the empty frames. Take a look around:

Click here to watch Richard DesLauriers, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, discuss the case

Recent Revelations

Lately the world has been a-buzz with Gardner Heist news! Although 25 years have passed since the robbery took place, new revelations come every week.

Have a look for yourself: click here and type “Gardner Heist” or a related search term into Google News. You won’t come back empty handed.

One of the most surprising recent revelations about the Gardner Heist is that the thieves may have done a ‘trial run’ of the theft the night before. On 6 August 2015, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts announced that they had security camera footage from the night before the heist that shows an unidentified and unauthorized individual entering the museum in the middle of the night. The very same security guard who let the robbers in let this man in as well.

Who is this man? Why did the security guard let him in? Why did the authorities wait over 25 years to release this information to the public? We just don’t know.

Update 2016

In May 2016, the FBI conducted a search of the Connecticut home of of Robert Gentile, an ageing mobster thought to have been connected to the heist. This was the third time Gentile’s home had been searched in connection to the Gardner theft and, one again, no trace of the paintings were found. The new search led many to ask the question: even if the paintings were found, would they be damaged beyond repair?

Update 2018

To date, this remains the world’s biggest unsolved art heist. The museum announced in January 2018 that they are extending a $10m
reward for information leading to the discovery of the art stolen 28 years ago. According to Steve Kidder, president of the museum’s board, the museum has doubled the reward, previously a sum of $5m, and made it indefinite because they remain hopeful that the art will eventually make a comeback.

Following this news of the indefinite monetary incentive, the museum is releasing a book on April 10 called, Stolen: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which provides an in depth look at the heist, including commentary from the museum director, curators and security staff.

Anthony Amore, the museum’s security chief, noted a marked increase in calls after the reward money was augmented. Amore, who has been working on the case for 12 years, thinks they could be getting close to solving the case.

“We are looking for that one or two pieces of info that could end this for us […] Someone could call with the info for one last puzzle piece.”

Your Thoughts

We may never know the fate of the Gardner Museum’s masterpieces, but that shouldn’t stop us from continuing to investigate this crime. Until we know for sure that the Vermeer, the Rembrandts, and the other artworks have been destroyed, there is always hope that they will be recovered.

Discuss in the comments section: Based on your research into this case, what do you think happened to the Gardner artworks? What might the authorities have overlooked? How can museums improve their security?